Every night my wife & I tuck our 2 lovely children into bed and every night, as we sit down to watch television or to talk about the days events, we get the last call.

Don’t know what the “last call” is?

Well…apparently it is the final thing that is on our kids’ minds. And they have questions. Questions about life. About words. About science. About friendship. Just about anything their little minds can conjure up. So inevitably we hear…

“Mommy…?” or “Daddy…?” coming quietly from the upstairs.

There are 2 ways of looking at this. First is that it is incredibly sweet and someday we will miss this little nightly ritual that we partake in. And I imagine that is not false. It IS kind of cute and my kids are lovely and we get along great so it’s not like it’s a huge burden on my wife & I to answer whatever final question of the day they have come up with as their last thought before going to sleep.

The second way to look at this is that we have just spent the last hour and a half trying to get them into bed and they have managed to bide their time by moping around, procrastinating to the point of frustration and basically ignoring every plea of urgency that we have thrown at them. They giggle and goof-off and make bedtime so irritating that at that point my wife and I just WANT THEM TO GO TO BED! So eventually they do…and then, just as we sit down on the couch…

“Mommy…?”

“Daddy…?”

Um…no. So imagine our frustration and irritation once that final call comes floating down the stairway. We have had enough. And usually the response is barked up as not so much as a response but more as a final edict.

“No Christopher…there are no such things as teeth bugs. If you had teeth bugs we would know about it because your dentist would have said so. Now GO TO SLEEP!”

“Yes Ava…tomorrow IS Tuesday and you have ballet practice. We have your bag down here packed and ready to go already. Don’t worry about it and GO TO SLEEP!”

It’s crazy what their minds come up with and we can always expect that call. And then one day we get…

“Daddy…?”

“WHAT CHRISTOPHER? AND IT BETTER BE GOOD!”

“I was wondering…tomorrow can we throw the baseball? I want to work on learning to pitch…”

Pause.

*sigh* “Yeah buddy…I think we can manage that. Now go to sleep. You need your rest…okay?”

“Ok daddy. Goodnight. Love you!”

“Love you too, little man…”

Just when the little things start to drive you crazy, you realize that for them, it’s the little things that matter the most. As irritating as the last call can be, it’s not the worst thing that they could do. And it’s one of the little things that I imagine someday I will miss…